~ Theology that is Approachable, Enjoyable, and Relevant

Blaming

I have a request. Can we stop blaming each other whenever something bad happens?

Can the left take a breath instead of speaking viciously against any and all conservatives and their ideas. I’m tired of hearing about how we need more gun control and that the rhetoric caused this or that tragedy and if I’m not for more “common sense” gun control then I’m siding with the terrorists. Wow, talk about loaded language.

Can the right stop blaming liberals and their ideas. I’m tired of hearing about how immigration and foreigners are causing violence and how we need “common sense” immigration reform otherwise we are just letting all the terrorist in and if you don’t support these restrictions you are supporting terrorism. Again, what’s with the loaded language?

If either of these positions were so totally solid in their thinking, then why do defenders of these things need to use terms like “common sense” or link anyone who questions the logic as being on the side of the terrorists? Sounds like the arguments are a bit weak to me if you have to load on guilt by association.

Want to talk about these policies? Great. Let’s have those conversations and look at the options, data, long-term effects, compare these proposals with what’s currently being done and what’s already the law and what’s not being enforced and why. Please also be open to other arguments. Maybe we’ll see or hear proposals of things we never even considered before.

Of course, having a conversation like that takes a lot of work, patience and being open to saying “I don’t know the answer.” It’s a lot easier to post a meme that makes a simplistic argument – you make it look like you did something or that you really care without the responsibility of having to deal with the long term effects of implementing actual policies.

The left and the right are pointing fingers at each other, continue to divide our nation, our churches and other institutions. They blame and they scapegoat. I’m tired of this. You both ought to be ashamed of yourselves as if you are clean as the wind-driven snow. If anything contributes to the violence around us, it is the vitriol, dehumanizing and blaming that goes on between left and right. You’re not helping. You encourage people to lash out at anyone who disagrees with you. Anyone who disagrees is an “idiot,” a supporter of terrorism, or just plain evil.

Enough already. Can we stop the childish, emotional rants as if we were a bunch of 2 year olds who can only react?

The left and the right both claim to be the true representatives of Christianity, yet they couldn’t be further from Christianity than possible. Christ came to put an end to scapegoating. It’s hard enough to follow Christ and believe in what he says as it is. And we see the left and the right both saying “we don’t buy it, we don’t buy what Christ says. The only answer is scapegoating and blame.”

I think a great deal of this comes back to a deeper issue – trust. If it wasn’t apparent, then it should be now – we have a issue with trust in the US. This isn’t new though. We have people of different skin color that don’t trust each other. We have people at different economic levels that don’t trust each other. People of different religions and even denominations don’t trust each other. People of different political parties certainly don’t trust each other.

But again, this isn’t something that just started showing up here in the US just recently. It goes back to the very founding of the country. The country was founded by a group of people who didn’t trust the British crown. So they constructed a government that was based on this mistrust. They didn’t trust the average person to vote or the people in charge to always be good. They believed that those in charge could not be trusted, just look, they broke trust with the colonists. So they designed a system of government where mistrust is the central feature. That’s what checks and balances are all about. That’s why the system is designed to be gridlocked. They did this so that the people wouldn’t get screwed by government because they didn’t trust people with power. Most of the of the founding fathers did not trust democracy and for very good reasons. Pure democracy usually ends in mob rule. They ended up coming up with the convoluted system, and we’ve been tinkering with it ever since – moving towards and away from trust with each new law and change to our government.

Is it surprising that our nation appears to be coming apart at the seems – trust has never been the foundation of the country.

But it is a major part of Christianity. We trust that regardless of what happens to us, God will win in the end. We trust that when God makes a promise that God will fulfill that promise. We trust that what Jesus says is true. The alternative is certainly lacking.

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I believe that God, church, and theology are approachable, enjoyable, and relevant for everyone. I write about this a lot because people need to hear it. So many people feel lost, hopeless, alone, and are searching for identity and meaning.
I'm an ELCA Pastor (Lutheran) who has a background in politics, business, and the non-profit worlds. I take churchy theological ideas and words and communicate them in everyday language that people can understand, in ways that relate, and show that God, church, and theology matter a great deal. Oh, and it doesn't have to be boring either - mostly because it's the best news ever!